The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.

There is an innocence in admiration: it occurs in one who has not yet realized that they might one day be admired.

What is the seal of liberation? Not to be ashamed in front of oneself.

The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it.

Madness is something rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, peoples, and ages, it is the rule.

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

Nothing on earth consumes a man more quickly than the passion of resentment.

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.

Man is something that shall be overcome.Man is a rope,tied between beast and overman – a rope over an abyss.What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end.

Throw roses into the abyss and say: ‘here is my thanks to the monster who didn’t succeed in swallowing me alive.

There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.

For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity or perception to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.

Love is a state in which a man sees things most decidedly as they are not.

And once you are awake, you shall remain awake eternally.

If you know the why, you can live any how.

I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage

True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness.

One must give value to their existence by behaving as if ones very existence were a work of art.

Remorse.– Never yield to remorse, but at once tell yourself: remorse would simply mean adding to the first act of stupidity a second.

Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called ‘Ego’.

Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.

The voice of beauty speaks softly; it creeps only into the most fully awakened souls

Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen.

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil.

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.

The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.

Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?

Become who you are!

Is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured?

To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence.

They muddy the water, to make it seem deep.

The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.

Ultimately, it is the desire, not the desired, that we love.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us.

Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.

After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.

Stupidity in a woman is unfeminine.

The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he encounters.

Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.

Amor Fati – “Love Your Fate”, which is in fact your life.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

Invisible threads are the strongest ties.

Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.

What does your conscience say? — ‘You should become the person you are’.

There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.

Art is the proper task of life.

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.

Silence is worse; all truths that are kept silent become poisonous.

All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down.

That which is done out of love is always beyond good and evil.

You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?

All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.

All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.

There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe.

We have art in order not to die of the truth.

Be careful, lest in casting out your demon you exorcise the best thing in you.

There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth.

The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.

A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions–as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.

The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.

The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night.

I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance.

Faith: not wanting to know what the truth is.

Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — always darker, emptier and simpler.

Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood.

Is man merely a mistake of God’s? Or God merely a mistake of man?

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

Man is the cruelest animal.

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.

When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.

No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.

There are no facts, only interpretations.

Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.

In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.

You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!

I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.

Without music, life would be a mistake.